


it's for tax purposes

by KuroHikaTsuchi



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gardens, Alternate Universe - Watchverse, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Marriage of Convenience, Post-Split (Gardens), Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26179387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroHikaTsuchi/pseuds/KuroHikaTsuchi
Summary: Watch!verse. Sometimes the only thing you need to do to save the world is to fill out the proper paperwork.
Relationships: Nara Shikako/Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 39
Kudos: 544
Collections: Dreaming of Sunshine Exchange 2020 A, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	it's for tax purposes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lalagant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lalagant/gifts).
  * Inspired by [watch not one another out of fear](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19873744) by [wafflelate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflelate/pseuds/wafflelate). 



> Set a couple of years after “watch not one another out of fear”, an AU where a post-split Gardens!Shikako joins the Konoha Military Police and befriends Shisui, all the while improving the Uchiha clan's reputation, bit by bit. 
> 
> I had so much fun writing this and I sincerely hope you enjoy this!  
> Thank you for beta-ing, drowsyivy!

Kofuku had dealt with a lot in her life. From wars to troublesome clan members, she had seen it all. Nothing had prepared her however for the headache that was Nara Shikako. 

When Shikaku had introduced her to the clan as a clan member from a farm near Kinchaku-gai who wanted to become a ninja, she’d had her suspicions. Really, who did he think he was fooling? She looked exactly like her clan head and was too skilled to have only received rudimentary training out in the country. Letting her keep the Shika- in her name only made the truth more obvious. 

Shikako was Shikano’s bastard child, and Shikaku wanted to hide his father’s indiscretion. 

All of this didn’t matter to her. As long as the line of succession was clear, she wouldn’t need to interfere. And looking at how vehemently Shikako avoided paperwork, even for being such a motivated Nara as she was, it didn’t look like she had any cause for concern. 

When the girl refused to join the Nara R&D full-time and instead applied for the Konoha Military Police, she had raised some eyebrows, both within and outside the clan. That Shikaku had actually allowed it caused no small amount of controversy. 

At least, R&D had managed to snap her up for a part-time position. Shikako wasn’t a bad worker, but she certainly was an unconventional one. 

Entirely too willing to explain her seals in detail while also being strangely defensive of all her work, always prefacing her demonstration with “This seal is intended for personal use.” You’d think that she was scared of getting into trouble over a simple explosive tag. Hah. 

The seals themselves were also rather unusual. Not only did the girl use a script of her own invention, but she also didn’t seem to have settled into a specialty. Most seal masters tend to pick a specific direction for their research, be it explosive or barrier seals. But this one, she flitted between esoteric subjects, from barriers to medical chakra measurement all the way to simple flashlights. 

She had thought that the thing that would cause her the most grief would be the names of the seals. 

Whoever thought that naming a seal “seal that goes ding when there’s stuff” was a good idea? Kofuku didn’t think that even the Yondaime -- so infamous for his naming skills, that a new division had to be created just to manage his reputation -- had ever been as bad with naming his jutsu as this girl. 

This, however, this took the cake. 

  


* * *

  


“We can’t just contract out our seal-work,” Kofuku sighed as she repeated it for the third time. She was starting to lose her patience. Hadn’t she been clear enough the first few times? 

“And why not? It’s my invention, I think I should have some say on how it gets used. Seal production takes up a lot of time and this way, we can concentrate on more on actual research instead of spending our time redrawing the same seal all over again,” Shikako argued, her tone bordering on irritation. 

“The problem, Shikako-chan, is that as soon as they passed the approval process those seals became a clan secret,” Kofuku explained. She gestured around the room. “You see this? This is one of our most stable sources of revenue for the clan. Sharing those secrets outside of the clan or our allies is reckless and shows that you are not ready yet to advance to a higher position in this department. It would be different if you wanted to hire a few Yamanaka or Akimichi since we have a longstanding alliance, but another clan? No. That is all I will say on the matter, do you understand?” she fixed Shikako with a hard gaze, her lips pursed into a thin line. 

“Yes, I understand Kofuku-oba,” Shikako bit out before hurrying out of the room. 

Kofuku sighed again before returning to her own work. What a troublesome girl. 

  


* * *

  


“Are you okay, Shikako-chan? You look like you’re about to set fire to your gyōza with just your stare alone. Do you want to go out to the training fields?” 

“No, I’m fine, Shisui. I just need to think for a moment.” Shikako said without looking up. 

“Alright, I’ll be here if you need me,” he answered before plopping down gracefully on the bench beside her. 

He reached out and stole a dumpling from her plate. The fact that she hadn’t even protested at that let him know that there was more going on with her than she was letting on. 

It took more than an hour to drag out the whole story from her, and by that time they had relocated to their usual training grounds. 

“The way I see it, hiring individual seal masters is out since it wouldn’t significantly increase production unless we could somehow find more than a dozen looking for work,” she said pensively before launching a barrage of kunai at him. She jumped away from his answering fireball. “Someone from your clan would be ideal, especially with the sharingan, as it would almost completely eliminate the learning curve.” 

“But your aunt said that you couldn’t contract outside of the clan,” Shisui pointed out. He went on the offensive, getting behind her in a burst of shunshin and drawing out his sword. 

Shikako dodged out of the way. “Well, there are ways around that. Obviously, adopting an Uchiha would be unfeasible, if only because one person wouldn’t be _nearly_ enough for all the work that must be done. So that leaves an alliance between our clans.” 

That shocked him enough for him to lose his balance. It couldn’t have been what she had meant, right? Shikako, a Nara, proposing an alliance to his clan? Everyone knew that the Nara took their alliances _very_ seriously. He had even heard speculations that they valued their alliances over Konoha. 

His distraction earned him a thin cut along his forearm before he regained his wits and shunshined to safety. “An alliance?” 

“Exactly, an alliance. Kofuku-oba said that only clan members and clan allies can be trusted with clan secrets, which just means that I have to find a way to forge an alliance with your clan if I ever want to leave the R&D dungeons,” Shikako explained as she narrowly dodged out of the way of his kunai. 

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, Shikako-chan. In case you haven’t noticed, my clan doesn’t really have the best reputation around the village. A show of support is one thing but an alliance? An actual political alliance? I don’t think that will happen any time soon.” 

“Exactly! Three birds, one kunai! Your clan’s reputation improves, both of our clans profit from the mass-production of seals and R&D won’t be able to complain about me not doing my duty to the clan!” she crowed victoriously. Her shadow jutsu sprang forth, but it only managed to ensnare the log he had substituted with. 

“Suppose you manage to convince our clans that it’s for the best, what’s next? There haven’t been any new alliances since before the foundation of Konoha!” 

“I know just the way! Traditionally, alliances were sealed through marriage between members of each clan. Since marrying into or out of a clan has become more common, it doesn’t usually result in an alliance but it’s not excluded. Which means that we have to find two compatible nin, probably chūnin or higher, to marry off!” 

Shisui tripped over his own two feet and just barely rolled out of the way of an oncoming kunai. 

  


* * *

  


And that was how Operation Mulan came to life. (Shikako-chan sure had a strange obsession with naming _everything_. And why “Mulan” anyway?) 

Four days, a broken sword, a lifetime ban from three restaurants and one bar, an incident involving an unheard-of amount of feathers, and the temporary adoption of a snake later (don’t ask… just don’t ask), they still hadn’t found two ~~victims~~ people to ~~trick~~ convince into matrimony. 

It wasn’t even a question of not finding any clansmen of similar age that could potentially be paired up. There had been no shortage of amicable relations that they could have leveraged. No, the problem was that both clans had very different types, for lack of a better word. 

While it wasn’t exactly set in stone or even well-known outside of the clan, the Uchiha had a generations-spanning tendency to gravitate towards dangerous things. From pets to hobbies, his clan had always been attracted by the thrill of danger. The more ferocious an animal, the more chances there were that an Uchiha would be nearby (one of their clan’s summoning contracts was with cats, that should tell you enough). And there was a reason why the first jutsu every Uchiha child learned was the Great Fireball. 

Unsurprisingly, this tendency also extended to partners. The Amaterasu-ōmikami festival was quite popular among young Uchiha who wanted to show off their skills in front of the entire clan (they received quite a few noise complaints every year due to their rowdy celebrations). 

Meanwhile, the Nara clansmen (and women) had a very different outlook on life. The lazy Nara stereotype was somewhat accurate from what his recent research told him. That wasn’t to say, however, that the Nara were passive. You never wanted to cross a motivated Nara after all. They were just... easygoing. And their preferences, almost invariably, tended towards the calmer things in life (which almost completely eliminated his (thrill-seeking) clan from the running). 

All of this combined to make finding a compatible pair for their scheme almost impossible. 

Almost, because Shisui knew at least one Nara that could, in fact, kick his ass (and with ease!) and he also knew exactly one Uchiha that had had his heart stolen right out of his chest. 

… But he also knew that particular fool was both hopeless and a disaster when it came to matters of the heart. 

One thing that was becoming increasingly clear though was that this may be his best chance at coming clean. Hopefully, she wouldn’t hate him too much for what he was about to do. 

Scraping together every ounce of courage that he still had, Shisui turned toward Shikako. He took a deep breath. It was now or never. 

“Let’s get married.” 

Wait, no no no, that wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Too fast! Abort, abort! 

“We could get married for the alliance.” 

Still not it. Definitely not it. Context, he needed context. 

“I… I like you.” 

Ah, there it was. Now, words. More words. He needed to move his mouth and form more words. Hopefully, in an order that made sense. Sentences, that’s right. What he needed were sentences. 

“I, uh… I like you, Shikako. You’re the best partner I’ve ever had and fighting with you always makes my day brighter. It feels like before I met you, the world was dull but now, now, you've brought colour into it. A million shades of every colour imaginable. When you smile, you make me smile. When you laugh, I laugh too. And when you even so much as frown, I want to hunt down the idiot who annoyed you and throw him into the Pit,” he paused to catch his breath before powering through. “Since we’re trying to unite our clans and didn’t find anyone else, I think that we could get married. If you want to, I mean. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. If you say no, we never have to bring it up again. You are my best friend and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.” 

Shisui trailed off, trying to gauge Shikako’s reaction. Her cheeks had coloured a light dusty pink while he was talking and she was fidgeting with her necklace. 

“Oh,” Shikako finally let out. Silence. Why wasn’t she saying something? Shit, shit, shit, he messed up. Big time. Was there even a way to salvage this situation? 

Shikako shifted from one foot to another, opened her mouth a few times, but no sounds came out. Then she stilled, seemingly having regained her composure. She stood in silence for a few moments more before she managed to talk again. 

“Shisui… I… I don’t know if I’m in love with you. Not yet, at least. I don’t even know if I ever will be, but I do know that I love you. You are my best friend too, and I think you’re the only person that I would ever consider marrying. So, yes, let’s get married. On one condition though.” 

“Anything,” Shisui promised, heart beating loudly in his ears. She said yes! 

She said yes! 

“You’re the one who gets to announce this to our clans,” she answered with a devious smile playing on her lips. 

Kami, did Shisui love her. But also, ouch. He was _so_ going to die. 

  


* * *

  


“Shikako-chan?” 

Shikako hummed to indicate she was listening. 

“I meant to ask… What is “Mulan”?” 


End file.
